A blog for students of Professor Kagan's internet course to comment and highlight class topics. From the various channels for marketing on the internet, to multimedia and e-commerce business models, anything related to the class is fair game.

Monday, February 26, 2007

ComScore Networks has released results of a study tracking the success of Yahoo!'s new search advertising system Project Panama.

Since making its debut on Feb. 5th, Panama is being credited with an uptick in Yahoo's clickthrough rates for sponsored search ads.

ComScore's study affirmed that fact by tracking the online behavior of 1 million internet users and determining that with the rollout of Panama, the new ranking model was responsible for a 5 percent increase in clickthroughs for the week ending Feb. 11, and a 9 percent increase for the week ending Feb. 18.

"ComScore data show that the recent introduction of Yahoo's new search marketing ranking model is already having a positive impact on the clickthrough rates for Yahoo's search advertising," said James Lamberti, comScore senior vice president of media and search solutions.

According to comScore, Panama has also created a shift in the composition of total click volume from algorithmic to sponsored.

According to new eMarketer estimates, online ad spending in the United States will rise by 19 percent in 2007, significantly less than the 30 percent increases the last three years.

eMarketer further projects annual growth falling to 13 percent by the end of 2011. Growth estimates are based on three premises, according to eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman:

Even if the economy slows down, continued growth in the online audience and the need for advertising to follow that audience will drive an ongoing shift away from other media, most notably newspapers and radio.

The opportunities for better targeting and more accurate tracking offered by online advertising relative to other media makes spending on the internet even more appealing in a soft economy.

As online video advertising becomes more widely used, large brand marketers who have up to now only dipped their toes online will devote increasingly greater budget shares to the internet.

CBS is moving into the Second Life neighborhood as a new partnership was announced today with The Electric Sheep Company.

CBS is hoping to connect with its audience and advertisers in the new interactive platform. CEO of The Electric Sheep Company Sibley Verbeck cited virtual worlds as a prime opportunity to build communities and create new advertising opportunities.

"Virtual worlds are the first successful incarnation of interactive television. They provide a 3-D, immersive environment in which fans can meet each other, interact with characters or cast members, and generate their own content. This partnership will allow us to explore new potential for CBS' content, and that of all our current and future customers, in the virtual space," said Verbeck.

CBS and The Electric Sheep company have raised 7 million dollars in funding together in their first round of fundraising for future projects. Exact specifications of the features planned for CBS' virtual world have yet to be disclosed.

Google has formalized its video AdSense program. Video ads now appear inside Google ad boxes on sites that are relevant to the content of the videos, and ads run during or after the content. Google shares the ad revenue with both the video provider and the site showing the video.Google has already struck video content deals with Conde Nast, MTV and The Wall Street Journal.

"Search is a fundamental part of the infrastructure of the Internet and therefore human society as a whole," he added. "The main idea will be to change the competitive landscape of search and encourage global innovation."

Wales, Wikipedia co-founder, announced from Chennai, India " his vision for the search engine that would follow the principles of online collaboration made popular by Wikipedia: the search algorithms will be published; it will be open to the online community for testing; the search engine itself will be open to all for scrutiny. "

"As an academic researcher, I am continually impressed by the excellent online databases that are (according to the email marketing, sometimes highly accurate) available for $2,995.00. C’mon guys. I’m a scholar. And what happened to “openness” and “community”?"writes Professor Thomas W. Hazlett.In is Financial Times article "The global village and the madness of e-crowds"below, he warns us of the overhype of web 2.0, user generated content and open source is crowding out part of the real story.

Just like with wireless tech. "While 2.5bn people were subscribing to mobile networks, the tech spotlight was on … WiFi. While a handy way to make a DSL connection cordless, the disruptive technology claims were wrong. Not many folks dropping their mobile subscription to talk from their “hotspot.”"

The real revolution is in Proprietary Content."Proprietary content is growing like a Paris Hilton video gone viral, with firms like Gartner, Forrester, Yankee Group, IDC and McKinsey & Co. charging fat fees for specialised content of keen interest to deep-pocket customers(...)Yes, the dramatic lowering of distribution costs allows information to travel on a budget. That is an oomph for markets, and perhaps a double-oomph for democracy.

It is a good reminder to look a the whole picture and not to get carried away by the "e-crowd hype" that could blind us to other important opportunities.

The point is not that “closed” beats “open,” but that capitalism accommodates both. Rules need not be changed to embrace the revolution. Markets thrust revolutions upon us, boldly and magnificently, far more often than we care to remember."

In the article below "Chinese Government promises to help fight online piracy" the author claims that "Piracy rate of software in China reached 86 percent last year and resulted in more than three billion dollars in losses by 2005"

"The Long Tail of Bud" article below illustrates how big corp are trying to tap the long tail effect; here with Bud's example, going from 26 to 80 brands - with new microbrews, only in Texas beers and beers for Women.

The interesting question is whether the concept extends to the physical world with limited shelf space or is a web based phenomenon only ?In the long term will it help solidify the grip of big co or will it really open the doors for small businesses?

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Not so quick to rebuff the door to door salesman. Wikipiedia is not yet Encylopedia Brittanica.

From the New York Times

When half a dozen students in Neil Waters’s Japanese history class at Middlebury College asserted on exams that the Jesuits supported the Shimabara Rebellion in 17th-century Japan, he knew something was wrong. The Jesuits were in “no position to aid a revolution,” he said; the few of them in Japan were in hiding.He figured out the problem soon enough. The obscure, though incorrect, information was from Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia, and the students had picked it up cramming for his exam.Dr. Waters and other professors in the history department had begun noticing about a year ago that students were citing Wikipedia as a source in their papers. When confronted, many would say that their high school teachers had allowed the practice.But the errors on the Japanese history test last semester were the last straw. At Dr. Waters’s urging, the Middlebury history department notified its students this month that Wikipedia could not be cited in papers or exams, and that students could not “point to Wikipedia or any similar source that may appear in the future to escape the consequences of errors.”

Amazon has invested $1 m in Shelfari, a website where users input all of the books they own, and have an online visual representation of their library to share with others. Users can share their library through the Shelfari website or via a widget, and make money by linking to the books for sale at Amazon. It's a new idea of user generated content.

I read this article about MySpace blocking Imeem, some popular widget that you can use. This is the just the last of a series of blocked widgests: Vidilife, Stickam and Revver. It seems that MySpace don't want anyone to make money from their huge base of users.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Curious about Internet usage statistics? Check out www.hitwise.com. They have some really interesting and well presented industry data. It will be helpful for anyone looking for a little insight to online marketing.

I thought it would be interesting to compare with Alexa.com statistics. Alexa.com has a little different ranking for the most popular web sites:1. Yahoo! 2. Google3. MySpace4. MSN 5. EBay6. YouTube7. FaceBook8. Wikipedia9. Craigslist10. Amazon

Hitwise has some other interesting data reports, like the top 4 fastest moving sites

Or you can search specific industries for most popular search terms.

The terms listed below are ranked by volume of searches that successfully drove traffic to websites in the Hitwise Music category for the 4 weeks ending January 27, 2007, based on US Internet usage.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Google today announced the launch of a new bundle of services targeted at corporations which include web based word processing and spreadsheet applications. Still in beta, the applications are being tested at several blue-chip corporations including General Electric.

The new package is said to priced at $50 per user, per year and includes significantly more email storage and technical support. Google has hinted that a blogging tool will be added to the budle next year.

Google has always denied that it has any interest in going head-tohead with Microsoft in the corporate software department, yet they announced the launch of the Premier Edition just as Microsoft announced the launch of Office 2007.

The Google Apps offering is what is known in technology circles as "hosted" software or "software as a service." Instead of running software on their own computers, companies rely on tech providers such as Google to run the software. Users then access the applications over the Internet through their Web browsers. Companies are spared most of the headaches of installing and managing software themselves and generally pay based on just how many employees use the product.

Trade-offs with such services can include less-sophisticated functions, issues with the security of data stored outside a corporation, and the inability to easily work on documents when there is no Internet connection, such as on a plane.

Time Warner tops this years list. The top 30 companies collectively generated $215 billion in media revenues. The rankings are based on revenues from activities that support advertising. The revenues are from 2005, or the nearest equivalent for companies whose financial years are different from calendar years.

In all, 16 of the top 30 media owners are from the U.S. The other countries with media owners in the top 30 are Japan, France, the U.K., Germany, Italy and Mexico. Non-American companies on the top 30 list include Axel Springer, Bertelsmann, BSkyB, ITV plc., Fuji TV and Televisa.

Two new-media companies are in the top 30: Google, at 13th, and Yahoo!, at 15th.

The ranking forms part of a new report from ZenithOptimedia called the Top Thirty Global Media Owners.

Verizon Offers Revver UGC Content to Pay-TV, Broadband ConsumersNEW YORK, February 22: Customers of Verizon’s FiOS TV pay-TV service, as well as its broadband customers, will soon have free access to content from the viral videos marketplace Revver.com.

Verizon will deliver selected Revver videos and other Internet video content to the TV sets of FiOS TV customers as part of its next-generation FiOS TV service later this year. Revver content will also launch on Verizon's Surround broadband entertainment portal by the end of the first quarter. Verizon customers will now be able to stream premium Revver videos on their TV sets and PCs. Through a separate agreement, Verizon Wireless already makes Revver videos available to Verizon Wireless customers with V CAST-enabled handsets.

Revver is the first online video service to compensate users for sharing content online, with a 50/50 revenue split. It says it does not accept copyright-infringing content.

"We're joining with Revver to bring the user-generated video phenomenon to the TV set," said Marilyn O'Connell, Verizon’s senior VP of video solutions. "Backed by Verizon's technology, we'll make it easy for our FiOS TV and broadband customers to enjoy the best of the cutting-edge videos that Revver is known for. This is just another way that FiOS continues to distinguish itself from old-fashioned TV."

Steven Starr, the founder and CEO of Revver, added: "Revver prides itself on attracting the very best digital video creators who are producing entertainment for the Internet today. This initiative will help us further support our creators by bringing their content to a whole new TV audience. It's a fantastic opportunity for our company and the growing Revver community."

TMP Worldwide is hosting job fairs and conducting interviews in the Second Life Universe. Companies can target the digital savvy 24-44 year audience for employment. This is not a job for Second Life avatars; the actual users can get employment in their "first" life. Employees beware: recruiters will search out your real stats based on real-life resumes, names, and email addresses.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

The media landscape is always changing at a rapid pace. 2007 is expected to see more innovations than in previous years. Will marketers be ready?

A study of Ad Execs by American Advertising Federation found that the innovations in 2006 took the leaders by surprise. YouTube, mash-ups, and Second Life were among the latest things that were not predictable at the beginning of 2006.

I have been argueing for a long time now that DRM has two different effects: 1) completely piss off users; 2) make users break the law and become pirates.

The following article from Wired, "How To Explain DRM to your Dad", gives a lot of examples that support my thesis. In summary, what usually happens is that after buying legally music, DVDs, ... there is one point in time when you have no choice that break the law to keep enjoying your legally acquired content. In my personal experience, my DVD collection with more than 100 titles that just play in Europe not in US.

I have been arguing for some time now that, among others, those two are really important challenges for the new Movie Download Industry in order to succedd:

Quality: with HD TV becoming more a more popular, what is the reason to buy a movie on Internet with qualities close to DVD: "4 times less than a HD TV movie"

Piracy: with the option of downloading content for free, what is the incentive to pay per content.

It seems that Duggmirror shares my concerns at some level. In that webpage, they made an interesting analysis linking both concepts. It seems that not only is free, but pirated movies have higher quality with similar file sizes than iTunes Movies. It is going to be a tough market to compete in.

After ditching YouTube, Viacom has signed a broad licensing deal with Joost. Joost's promise that it would protect Viacom's copyrights was a major factor in VIA's decision to pursue the deal. The same issue was a stumbling block in the company's talks with Google.

Joost was started by the guys behind Skype and is currently in testing phase. You can currently sign up for their beta and tinker around with the program. They're planning to launch in June...

Monday, February 19, 2007

After watching on the sidelines as Google snatched up YouTube for $1.65 billion, Microsoft has recently announced their own version of YouTube called Soapbox. It was just a matter of time, wasn't it?

In a very Web 2.0 way, Soapbox will allow users to upload their digital videos online and also tag them to let other users find them quickly. (Wow, except YouTube already does this).

Word on the street is that Microsoft will provide more direction on their financial expenditures in this online realm this Thursday so look out for the news.

Microsoft has the luxury of sitting back and entering this space late due to the billions of dollars per month they generate in FCF, but as most new projects, this may not be the winner they were hoping for, especially with younger users turned off by the old-school MSN branded website.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Yahoo kicked off a new era in TV upfront history by inaugurating its own "infront" conference at a theater here last night. The message to classically trained TV media buyers: The age of digital media is here, and Yahoo is laying its claim on the dollars chasing 18- to 34-year-olds.....

"We're not here to trash television," she said. But, she noted, 17% of a consumer's time is spent online, and only 6% of ad dollars are spent there. While people always say it's not about the money, "that spread of 11 points ... that's very much about the money," she said. Moving dollars online, she said, is about "replacing hope with certainty. ... We're here today to gently coax new thinking as media plans are created."

Key Takeaway: The main complaints lodged by audience members seem to be related to the overuse of marketing jargon and the "underuse" of entertainment at the conference (see image of the incredibly dry mainstage above). The key takeaway: if you want companies to buy online ad "time," you better be very clear on what it's going to bring them. Razzle Dazzle 'em...

My Questions: Why does this seem to be so difficult to do? Isn't online advertising the most measurable form of advertising out there?

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Since Michael Dell came back to manage the company he built years ago, changes are accelerating.

One of the main ideas is to bring the concept of Web2.0 to the corporate world. So far Dell has a team of people actively reading blogs, webpages, reviews ... to have a real idea of what users thing about Dell products.

Now, they have launched a new project: IdeaStorm. The goal is to convert Dell in a 2.0 company. That means let users suggest what new products they must launch, what things to change, services to implement, ...

The oldest battle in the world gets tech update...but I tend to think its for the worse.

There now web sites (see WSJ WE edition) allow yourself to tell everyhting you think about your ex date. Of course, its everything bad...:

On the front page of dontdatethisguygirl.com, you have a picture of a guy, his name and a link to the full comment:

"name of the guy"...he's no good. He's a follower and a loser. Ladies, don't waste your time on this boy. For clearer pics of him go on his website and click "Slideshow" @ www.bfssound3.com (A girl in pink is sitting on his lap)

It feels good to talk or write about a frustrating relationship, sure. Friends are helpful there. But the Web is a really powerful media and one way blogs do not offer a chance for answering, testing good against bad faith or even rehabilitating.

I think it's a good illustration of the limits of web 2.0. a-the level of posts on those blogs is a bit scary. It does not fly highb-it opens legal issues and does not offer any solution. There's been a couple of suits filed against the site and bloggers already. ..

Friday, February 16, 2007

Nike, like many companies this year, has enlisted users to create ads for their new product, Air Force. Nike has decided to take advantage of the popularity of "mashing" on YouTube. They offer a variety of clips and sound tracks that can be edited together by the user into a 1-minute ad. This isn't mashing in the purely democratic, free-for-all kind that has been the hallmark of YouTube. You are limited to their menu of clips and music and all ads will end with "The Second Coming," the tag line for the new product, and a patented Nike swoosh.

From a marketer's perspective, this sounds pretty amazing. You are engaging the consumer with your brand while generating buzz about the Air Force sneakers. Proud mashers will be sending their clip (i.e., your advertisement) around so all their friends can watch. PLUS, you get to see what your brand means to these users by which clips and music they choose. If Nike is smart, they will listen closely to hear where their brand is going when it is out of headquarters and in the street. Check out these two videos posted on YouTube and you'll see how different brand perceptions can be. (Wish I could post the videos but YouTube won't let me!)

From a user perspective, however, I am curious to see the reaction. Will mashers accept the limitations or are they contradictory with the whole idea of mashing. It seems that in this world, no one is supposed to claim ownership over any content and use by others should be a form of flattery, just as jazz musicians used to riff off of other artists' tunes. While this surrender of the material is unacceptable to a marketer, it may be difficult to come off as genuine in this milieu while keeping a grip of the left-brain of Web 2.0.

I have read two different articles these past weeks that together are even frightening. On one hand, Mini (by BMW) has launch a marketing campaign in billboards all across New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. Those billboards (see picture) are able to read RFID information from Mini cars, therefore users can customize the message in the billboard with anything they want when they drive close to the billboard. It is getting close to the future presented by the movie Minority Report.

For those that have no idea what RFID is, let's say that is going to be the BarCode of the future. All the products are getting tagged with RFID chips that send information to computers without requiring a scanner or similar. Let's compare to a wireless barcode.

Some uses are:

Supermarkets: you buy what you want and you don't have to take everything off your cart to pay for it. As soon as you are in front of the cashier, the computer knows how much it is. Even, I saw one test of carts with a display that shows you how much it is.

Distribution industry, Inventory Management: there is no more need for manual recounts or checking. The SKUs are telling you: "I'm here or not"

Now, the scary part, Hitachi has announced a couple of days ago that they have produced RFID chips so smaller that can be confuse with powder. Look at the image, the right part shows a human hair with lots of chips around. Be prepared to have dozens of RFID chips close to you in the next years: your pants, your shirts, your shoes, your food, your pills, your watch, ...

In terms of marketing, it has huge impact. You will get into a retail store and they will be able to know what is your size, what colors do you wear now, what are your favorite brands, ... I told you, scary future!!!

RSS ad network Pheedo has announceda new service tonight - an advertising widget powered by RSS and incorporating several social media tools. You can see an example in the webpage.

The idea is that some of the ads that companies are producing to attract customers to their sites are really amazing. Why do not rate them with Digg, Furl, Del.Icio.Us or Technorati? That's the goal of this new application.

Through RSS you will subscribe to different ads that will display (even with Video) on your widget and you will have the chance to rate them.

I must recognize that seems to be a complete out of the box idea, but I don't see yet the real application.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The Associated Press and NowPublic.com said Friday they had agreed to a partnership to let AP to use photographs, video and news from "citizen journalists" in its newsgathering operation.

....The AP said that in the first phase of the partnership, news and photo editors on its national news desks in New York will have the option of using selected content from NowPublic.com to supplement the work of AP journalists.

By combining the editorial oversight of the AP editors with the vast network of newsgathering possible through 'citizen journalists", can the AP get the best of both worlds? It seems like a good model.... Althought I would be interested in seeing how everyone gets paid. The AP says that NowPublic.com members will be compensated and recieve credit. But of course, the exact details have not been disclosed. (To be fair, they may not have figured them out yet...)

Monday, February 12, 2007

The social-networking site is no looker, and the freedom it gives users leads to some pretty loud results. But that may be the secret to its success

It came late to the market -- so late, in fact, that by the time it launched, people were already declaring the product category dead. It offered no new technology -- virtually every feature of the site was an imitation of something someone else had already done. It looked amateurish, lacking even the most basic level of visual consistency and appeal, never mind the high-gloss polish of its venture-backed competitors.

It seemed like an also-ran. But in less than two years it built up a community of more than 20 million users. And then it sold for half a billion dollars.

The site is MySpace, a social-networking space where people connect with their friends and make new ones as they share their interests and personalities through the blogs, photos, comments, video, and audio they post. MySpace has developed a particular appeal for young people because the site makes it especially easy for bands to set up pages to communicate with their fans.

This was the general topic debated on the Music Panel at Columbia's own MBA Media and Entertainment Conference last Friday. The panel included distinguished members of the music label world, music subscription services, and A&R folks. All pointed to the fact that the fragmentation of albums into singles has pushed many artists into the world of creating only singles. (re: Kelly Clarkson)

Tip #1: Write all Singles for your next "Album"

Remember when you finished listening to Achtung Baby and thinking, "That is a great album!" Well, these days, artists are pressured into making radio friendly songs and slapping them together on an "album." This is to satiate the demands of buying songs one at a time in the iTunes model. Mr. Carreras, of RCA Records, spoke about the worried nature of traditional record labels as they pour the same or more money into album production & marketing, only to helplessly watch one particular song sell for $0.99.Tip #2: Sign with a Major Record LabelAs we asked on the panel - how do I distinguish my band from all the others on MySpace? Answer: Sign to a Major Record Label!!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

According to this screen capture posted in digg, it seems that Slashdot.org is beta testing a new functionality that will bring together the outstanding user generated content with the social network effect.

The name would be Slashdot Firehose where users would be able to rate and vote posts like in digg. I guess that there are two main objectives:

a) Increase the time that users expend on slashdot.org, social places usually present a higher time per user on the page ratio

b) Create a better segmentation of the users that will lead to more advertisement dollars getting into slashdot.org

As promised, here is the link to Kevin Bacon's jump into philanthropy: sixdegrees.org It's a cool concept: connect do-gooders through social networking by playing the celebrity card.

I personally think the whole concept would work more effectively if they played up the "game" aspect of six degrees a bit more. It's difficult from the website to immediately understand what the point is (other than to donate money to your favorite celebrities' charities).

cf WSJ Feb 9Ikea in the UK made an interesting move. they've hired their digital ad agency (the one they use for online advertising) to do off line advertising. it's interesting because so far off line ad agency have always been the "smart guys". Digital and online advertising weren't predominant. Now, because online ad allow so many things, including pre testing of campaigns, new forms of advertising, the online adgencies are getting the upper hand.I don't really like the campaign however. it shows robots operating in a kitchen or having a marital-like dispute. Ikea is not so inspiring that it can project potential buyers into robots. well, i'm sure I did not get the message. The point is that online ad agencies are on the move!

"Clean Up Aisle 7"..."Earl, we were never in Aisle 7. Honest." Yes, I am referencing the supermarket scene from one of the all time cinematic greats, Mr. Mom. The film, while it interests me on many levels, is of note in this post for what it tells us about the world of cart-based shopping--it can be overwhelming at times.

Fear not fellow consumers, MediaCart has arrived! MediaCart will play digital video promotions, connect shoppers to information about the whereabouts of the products they are trying to buy, and inform stores through RFID technology about what these shoppers are looking at and what they are buying. While the concept seems to be angering some, I am personally not offended...yet.

It is easy to imagine how linking this tiny screen to the Internet could open some very interesting marketing opportunities:1) The electronic coupon. Load coupons from manufacturers sites onto your virtual Kroger Shopping Cart account. Arrive at the store, login to your cart...and watch the discounts add up.2) Recipe Search (a la Fresh Direct). Load your favorite recipes onto your account. Login and shop from your ingredient list.3) In Store Comparison Shopping. Login to a special section of your friend's account to see what she recommends for you.

Get to know the folks who consistently rank at the top of digg.com, reddit. com and other voting-type sites. To find the key influencers, The WSJ analyzed more than 25,000 submissions across six major sites. Most of these people get a real kick out of being ranked highly week after week and some of them offer tips on how to stay on top.

Friday, February 09, 2007

As we mentioned in class, Google announced a new algorithm in late January that aims to end Google bombing. I was curious what Google bombs used to be out there.

In the UK version of Google the search for "Liar" resulted in links to Tony Blair. And while "miserable failure" resulted in links to George Bush for US Google users, it leads to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s biography when "miserable failure" is written in Hebrew. A search for "Waffle" used to lead to links for J. Kerry. Another successful Google bomb connected "Scientology" and "Operation Clambake."

In a twist on Google bombing a parody web site made a fake website that is the highest result when searching for "French Military Victories." The link leads to a fake Google page that says, “Your search - french military victories - did not match any documents. Did you mean french military defeats?" And in 2003 a search for "Weapons of Mass Destruction" lead to a spoof error page saying, “These weapons of mass destruction can not be displayed.”

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Google is still the leader in online search advertising, but Yahoo is making strides to catch up. On Feb 5th Yahoo switched to a new search advertising system, named Project Panama. Until now Yahoo gave advertising preference to those willing to pay the most. The new system will allow advertisers to pay for search terms bases on the popularity of these terms. Advertisements are based on the content of a web page in an attempt to get more ads clicked on. As you can see, in many ways Project Panama is trying to emulate what Google has already.

In 2006 Google made approximately 4.5 cents to 5 cents on every search while Yahoo made only 2.5 cents to 3 cents a search. It’s no surprise that shares in Yahoo have been down, especially since the launch of Project Panama was delayed almost 2 months. Recently they are on the rise again, showing confidence in the new system.

While the new system will likely bring more revenue into Yahoo, it’s really unclear exactly how much more. They are certainly a company to keep an eye on as they try to make up for ground lost to Google.

One of the most interesting ideas I saw in the articles this week was a home improvement site called pointclickhome.com. The site is referred to as a "shelter site" that culls information and articles from several other sites and brings into one access point.

The site is being launched by Hachette Filipacchi Media. Content will come from several of the companies applicable holdings, such as Elle Decor. There will also be original content, such as question/answer sessions with professional decorators and seasonal plans. There will also be an interactive virtual room desiger.

As cool as all the content sounds, I think it is important to note the move from a fragmented set of sites to a synergistic portal that will be able to serve multiple needs of diverse customers. As good as the Internet is at serving niches, I think this type of umbrella or shelter stie will prove necessary, along with the mega-search sites like Google, as people try to find useful information on the millions of sites out there.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Here's a community idea that actually makes sense: it's not just another MySpace clone. PatientsLikeMe aims to build communities around "life-changing diseases". I think this is a great idea for a lot of reasons.

Above all, it's a great cause - which also makes for a highly motivated community. Anyone who has been seriously ill knows the first thing you do is seek out the experiences and advice of others - not raw medical knowledge, but how people like you have coped and adapted to the impact of this kind of thing. Sadly, the information out there tends to be clinical - raw medical definitions and info - or downright depressing. The people who post tend to be the most awful stories - not those who would form a natural support group.

That these communities can share support and stories of coping, as well as information, is heartening. It also, quite frankly, makes for a lucrative demographic for medical marketers. People with life changing diseases often have lifelong medical needs or special needs of some sort: diet, travel, etc. So it would seem to be a good cause and a good business.

SecondLife continues down the path of world-domination as now governments are sitting up and taking notice of the site. Sweden plans to establish the first embassy in the virtual world, based on the country's embassy building in Washington D.C.

I'm assuming this initiative is being motivated by the cultural tourism branch of the Swedish Embassy. Will it really stimulate interest in Swedish culture or cause an increase in international visitors? I've never been to SL (I say that like its really a place), can anyone tell me if there are other cultural institutions setting up shop there? For example, does the Met have a museum branch, or the Tate?It will be interesting to see if other culturals and non-profits begin appearing in SL and what effect that has on audience participation, revenue, and changing visitor demographics.

For all of you that have not clue of what DRM means, let me say that DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. In other words, it's the piece of software that controls the way you share your music, videos, pictures, etc.

For example, if you are a user of iTunes and buy music from the internet store, DRM will set that the maximum number of times that you can copy the music to a CD is 6 and that you can share the music with other 4 computers.

There is a lot of movements in Internet against DRM with the argument that controls your freedom as user to do what you want to do. Seriously, DRM is not Steve's idea or Gates' idea. DRM is an initiative that music companies have put in place.

Recently there has been a lot of talk about it because a) iTunes has been declared ilegal (due to DRM) in Norway, and probably the rest of Europe can follow the idea (same to Vista DRM, ...); b) the implementation of DRM from Vista is really strict.

Steve Jobs has react with this letter showing some interesting points:

1) DRM is not his idea2) He would support any movement to freeDRM music but the industry doesn't let him...

I found it really interesting. In other words, SJ is trying to push the users to fight the battle against the music companies, cleaning iPod+iTunes name at the same time :-) Really smart.

The message here is pretty accurate: in the era of contextual advertising and cheap web hosting, many part-time bloggers are turning a little hobby into a little extra income. Most, however, are not making a fortune.

The rise of what's known as contextual advertising has created a21st-century version of royalties that's reaching deep into the ranks ofamateurs and hobbyists. It points to a future where many people willmoonlight online as small-time creators for a little extra income, with afew finding fame and fortune along the way.

A self selecting sample in a survey (say THAT three times fast) points to around half the bloggers making around $100 or more a month - the Google check limit, incidentally. This doesn't allow many to quit their day jobs. Still, a perhaps hidden benefit is the other sort of income: consulting leads, free equipment to review, and even just a better reputation in one's industry. As one blogger notes, "...his approach has yielded some financial benefits, such as free computer equipment, and freelance and consulting work."

Perhaps one gentlemen put it best hwoever when he said, "I worked anything from eight- to 16-hour days over the last three or four years just trying to do this," says Mr. Rowse. "And a lot of people don't see that."

Monday, February 05, 2007

Watch this clip on YouTube from BMW promoting the new BMW5 (even if you are not a car fan - its good viewing). Incredibly they talked Clive Owen and Madonna into appearing in it... Surely this represents the future for advertising on the web!

Flick'r beware...The race to win in the image search space continues. Like.com, Tiltomo, and Xerox are already in the game, while Swedish upstart, Polar Rose, hopes they've got a winner on their hands.

Polar Rose has developed tag-free image search for faces in photographs."With an ordinary image, the computer only sees an assortment of pixels," Solem says, "so if you turn your head in a photo or change the lighting or other conditions, the computer won't recognize you."

How it works. The Malmö, Sweden-based company solves that problem with 3-D modeling technology that measures parameters such as the distance between the base of the nose and the top of the upper lip. The software also relies on statistical analyses its engineers have performed on hundreds of images to establish what head shape people with a given set of facial features are likely to have. The program generates a 3-D head model, factoring in angle, lighting and other variations between images. The technology should be available this spring as an extension for Internet Explorer and Firefox and as an API that developers can incorporate into photo sites.

Monetization. Despite their varied goals, visual-search companies have similar moneymaking strategies. Polar Rose is banking on advertising-related partnerships to generate cash flow. "A text box next to an online image might tell you, 'This is a photo of J. Lo. Would you like to buy her latest CD on iTunes?'" says Mikkel Thagaard, the company's vice president of business development.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Conde-Net, the interactive arm of Conde-Nast, is jumping into Web 2.0 with Flip and they're taking the advertisers along with them.

Flip will basically be a Conde-Net version of MySpace (if perhaps a bit cleaner in layout). The promise of access to the 'tween and teen market has attracted major advertisers, like Nordstroms and Clean and Clear (a J&J brand) who, in keeping with the spirit of the site, will allow users to choose where and how they view the ads. These ads will appear in each user's image bin. From there, a girl could place this brand's chosen image anywhere on an any of her Flip pages.

First of all, these companies will be surrendering a huge amount of control over their brand to 13 year old girls who will be able to not only create the content surrounding the image, but also, will be able to digitally doodle on the image itself. Companies like J&J (you know, A Family Company) do not take the idea of objectionable material lightly and must be counting on a traditional media company like Conde-Nast to keep things in line - monitors have been hired to examine sites and remove anything objectionable.

Second, unlike traditional advertising, no one has to view these ads. The onus will be on these companies to create images that are attractive, interesting and hip enough to be chosen by the users. Perhaps in response to this challenge, many of the images will be largely unbranded. Nordstrom will offer clips of their clothing that viewers will only be able to identify by clicking on the image. Clean and Clear will not place its brand anywhere on word-play icons, like "Fresh!"

While this seems like a huge sacrifice of control and visibility on the part of the advertisers, I think that they are bending over backwards to seem genuine and, thereby, find a foothold in this explosive market that seems largely resistant to any intrusions by the market.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

This week we were invited to attend the premiere of Strange Culture, an independent film by Lynn Hershman. The film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival last week and has the distinction of being the first-ever feature film shown in Second Life.

... Watching a movie in Second Life was totally weird. When you get to the movie theater, you hit the play movie control on your SL window. We're all watching the same film, but a different times! That seems like the most significant difference from a traditional cinema.

Those are the words of Nework_Performance about his experience of watching the first-ever feature film shown in Second Life.

Some highlights from the earnings call below. For full info, check out:http://investor.google.com/releases/2006Q4.html"Revenues - Google reported revenues of $3.21 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, representing a 67% increase over fourth quarter 2005 revenues of $1.92 billion and a 19% increase over third quarter 2006 revenues of $2.69 billion. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs, or TAC.

Google Sites Revenues - Google-owned sites generated revenues of $1.98 billion, or 62% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2006. This represents an 80% increase over fourth quarter 2005 revenues of $1.10 billion and a 22% increase over third quarter 2006 revenues of $1.63 billion.

Google Network Revenues - Google's partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $1.20 billion, or 37% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2006. This is a 50% increase over network revenues of $799 million generated in the fourth quarter of 2005 and a 16% increase over third quarter 2006 revenues of $1.04 billion.

International Revenues - Revenues from outside of the United States contributed 44% of total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2006, compared to 44% in the third quarter of 2006 and 38% in the fourth quarter of 2005. Had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the third quarter through the fourth quarter of 2006, our revenues in the fourth quarter of 2006 would have been $18 million lower. Had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the fourth quarter of 2005 through the fourth quarter of 2006, our revenues in the fourth quarter of 2006 would have been $81 million lower.

Paid Clicks - Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and our AdSense partners, increased approximately 61% over the fourth quarter of 2005 and approximately 22% over the third quarter of 2006. "Isn't AdSense amazing? :-)